


Misery Tactics

by ShadowsideGoddess



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:21:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23572264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsideGoddess/pseuds/ShadowsideGoddess
Summary: In which a man has a change of heart (and some other things of varying importance)Deals with Leonard/Harold and his behavior, but does not excuse it.
Relationships: Vanya Hargreeves/Leonard Peabody
Kudos: 6





	Misery Tactics

The music of the orchestra astounded him now. He hadn’t particularly cared for the finer of arts for most of his life, but his pet project here had brought him to appreciate the subtlety of them. He still found it overwhelming; she would talk of the layers and could pick out each part, but to him it was like a blind man picking out a single thread in a tapestry. Still, beautiful.  
The music continued on, plowing through each rise and fall without the frequent stops that had littered the past half-hour. It was about time. The last chord rang, and after a couple minutes of silence, cases clattered and chairs screeched across the stage floor. He tensed, ready to do the grisly deed as he needed to give Vanya her vital role. High-heels clicked up to the backstage door that the girl, Helen, left through every time. Just as he prepared himself to pounce, something flickered in the corner of his eye. He turned to look.  
A shimmer, slightly iridescent, a couple of feet away. It flew quickly past, but suddenly plummeted. Out of nowhere, a small woman, barely Vanya’s height, hit the ground. She squeaked on impact.  
“Who-” Harold started, but she barely glanced at him before she scrambled up the wall of the theatre. Two men ran into the alleyway, continuing straight past Harold. Helen stepped out of the theatre and turned, looking straight at Harold with a startled expression. Her mouth opened, maybe to ask a question, maybe to yell.  
“Shit,” the woman hissed to a loud clank. A chunk of piping fell and struck Helen right on the head, knocking her out cold. Harold looked down then up, shocked. The small woman looked down at him and the limp body on the ground.  
She spoke again. “Shit!”  
The air around her shimmered, and she disappeared again. Harold stood in the alleyway with an unconscious Helen, stunned and confused.  
Maybe it was a small bit of providence. He wouldn’t have put more blood on his hands, and she was out of commission now. She’d take pretty long to recover from that, he was certain.  
~~~  
“That’s crazy.”  
Vanya clutched her coffee tightly, astounded at Leonard’s story.  
“She’s lucky I was there.”  
Leonard’s eyes lingered on her briefly. Vanya looked down at her coffee, her mind buzzing.  
“If she’s that bad off, that must mean she’ll have to take off from the orchestra. Which means…”  
Leonard picked up her sentence. “First chair?”  
“Right. There should be auditions.”  
“Vanya, this is great!” He paused. “I mean, not Helen getting injured, though she doesn’t seem very friendly herself. But this could be your chance! I bet you would be extraordinary!”  
The word made her cringe, but also roused a little fire in her. Even if she didn’t have the powers of her family, she could still strive to be extraordinary in other ways.  
“It couldn’t hurt, Vanya.”  
“No, I guess it couldn’t. I’ll do it.”  
Leonard grinned with startling ferocity. “Great!”  
Vanya chuckled, but her gut lurched at the thought of the audition. She’d run out of medicine this morning, and her anxiety began to creep up on her. The sounds of the other people in the coffeehouse pressed on her brain. She shivered.  
“I wish I had as much confidence in myself as you do.”  
Leonard chuckled. “Get first chair, and I think you’ll believe me.”  
She downed the last of her coffee without responding.  
He pursued it, just a bit further. “I think you’re capable of it. Don’t let her get into your head.”  
His face betrayed so much utter confidence in her. He looked as if he thought she had already earned first chair, just by being there.  
She shook her head slightly. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  
Vanya stood up from her chair. Leonard quirked an eyebrow.  
“Leaving?”  
She nodded, not trusting her voice entirely.  
“Yeah- just-”  
She makes a wide gesture at the buzzing coffee shop.  
“Without the meds-”  
He nods vigorously and makes a shooing gesture.  
“Go, go. I get it, really. Just-”  
He brushes her hand lightly.  
“Don’t psyche yourself out about it, okay? Have a little faith. For me.”  
Her lips flattened into an anxious line. “I’ll try.”  
Vanya left the coffee shop. Her phone buzzed, and she answered quickly.  
The phone screen lit up with a contact screen. Allison.  
She sighed.


End file.
